Horror Short Stories - Chapter 26

After I woke up the next morning, everything was back to normal and what happened last night felt like just a dream to me. At least till I saw my wife’s accusing glance. I looked down to my hands realizing, that I forgot to wash the blood of my hands. Even though she didn’t say anything and this was her usual behaviour in such moments, I knew her long enough to know what she was thinking.

To make things worse, there I got a letter in this week. An unknown man had filed a lawsuit against me, for an assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The unlucky thing is that he included some footage of a surveillance camera, which clearly showed my face. If this would come through, some sweet months in prison would wait for me. I was pretty stressed out with this situation and didn’t know what steps to take. My wife was on the verge of a breakdown, but luckily we had a good attorney within the family (Karl, my wife’s brother). Otherwise we just wouldn’t have the money to buy one at the moment.

At the awkward meeting with Karl, I told him my reasons. I have been out of my mind and couldn’t control myself. Otherwise I would never do such a thing. Unfortunate he didn’t get what I was saying and came to the conclusion, that a diagnosis of a psychologist would be a safe way of not going to prison. Although I meant something different, after the “safe way out of prison” part I still decided to do it.

So some days later, I finally held my diagnosis in my hands. A little bit baffled I stared at the results, but the more I thought about it, the more sense they made. After we only had a small talk, and I told him about the last few weeks in my life, he came to the conclusion, that I had a PTSD from the recent car accident that I couldn’t remember well. He said, because the last moment that I could remember was two muscle cars somewhere far behind me, that I had some traumatic reactions when I get followed by something. Fortunately after some time passes, they have a high chance of going away. But it is possible to last for some months, even years. Furthermore he recommended going into treatment, to avoid situations like the one that got me into a lawsuit.

In the end, with the diagnosis in our hands, the lawsuit concluded relatively calm. We agreed on a compensation of his treatment, the attorneys fees and additionally a slight compensation of a bit more than 1.000 Euros. It was one of the best outcomes, considering that the opposing party had some clear evidence on me, but still a couple thousand euros was a big sum for our little family. I heard my wife cry sometimes, when she thought I was not around. I noticed myself, that we would have no luxury for the next months.

After some deep thoughts, I decided to make a trip with my family, to visit my grandparents in the countryside. I know my wife loved trips and travel, and I hoped to brighten up her mood with that.

No sooner said than done, we immediately we took some days of work for the next week and packed up. As soon as we arrived on the farm of my grandparents, I could see her smile again. I felt happy for the first time in weeks and was looking forward to a relaxing week of holiday.